Cold Weather Begins - September 30th

I fished Bluestone by myself on a day were the air temp wasn't much above 50 degrees. With the water up I ran to Bull falls were I caught 3 smallies and lost one more in first 30 minutes. Then the fish just shut off, not antoher bite in 3 more hours on anything. All 3 bass were small smallmouths off of gold blade spinnerbait.

Sunday Afternoon Pond Fishing - September 27th

One cooler sunny Sunday afternoon Brad & I fished the Wykle pond for ~3 hours. It had rained hard the day before and the pond was up a little but still clear. Brad threw small cranks and self made in-line elites spinners. I fished with flukes, shakey head worm, Senko's, Booyah spinnerbait, drop shot minnow, a crankbait and a jitterbug. I caught 4 bass, 2 on a spinnerbait and 2 on a drop shot Gary Yammamoto minnow. I missed a couple other bites. Of the four I caught one was a pretty nice sized largemouth seen in the pic. Brad caught a really nice channel cat. We weighed him and he was over 8lbs in the net. It was a realy pretty, cool yet comfortable, evening where you can feel cooler weather around the corner. The pond and the area around it are gorgeous.

A Interesting Study on Stocked Trout

West Virginia Division of Natural resources
Wildlife Resources Section
Trout Tagging Study
Summary of Results
Since 2006, WVDNR biologists have conducted studies on stocked trout. The goal of this study is three-fold: 1) To determine angler success, 2) To determine stocking success, and 3) To determine angler opinions about trout stocking and fishing.
In 2006, three water bodies were studied: Spruce Knob Lake (Randolph County), North Fork of the South Branch of the Potomac River (Grant and Pendleton Counties), and Mountwood Lake (Wood County). This increased to five water bodies in 2007: South Branch of the Potomac River (Smoke Hole Section-Pendleton County), North Fork of Cherry River (Greenbrier and Nicholas Counties), Panther Creek (McDowell County), Coopers Rock Lake (Monongalia County), and Jimmy Lewis Lake (Mercer County). In 2008, WVDNR will be tagging and stocking trout into Krodel Lake (Mason County), Summersville Lake Tailwaters (Nicholas County), and the Blackwater River (Tucker County).
Several interesting results have been found:
WVDNR biologists have tagged and stocked 6,461 rainbow, brook, brown, and golden trout.
Overall, 48% (3,090 of 6,461) of the tagged-trout were reported caught. This ranged from 40% on the North Fork of the South Branch of the Potomac River, to 65% at Jimmy Lewis Lake.
Anglers caught a greater percent of stocked trout in lakes (56%) as compared to rivers (45%).
Anglers kept 92% of trout they caught.
Based on study results, greater than 65% of the stocked trout were still available for anglers to catch one week after stocking.
Anglers reported catching tagged-trout as long as 1 year following stocking.
Based on 919 angler-submitted surveys, 73% of the anglers were satisfied, 12% neutral, and 15% dissatisfied with their trout fishing experience.
West Virginia anglers represented 89% of those who returned tags, non-resident anglers reported being from 15 states.
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A couple thoughts: I knew people like to eat trout but 92% damn! It really suprises me that trout have a better chance of survival in a river vs a lake. I think it has a lot to do with the river they stocked these fish in. The North Fork of the South Branch is 20+ miles long and almost as big as the Greenbier, while Jimmy Lewis Lake is only 15 acres and accesible from all sides. They are reporting only ~50% of stocked trout being caught. Either people arn't reporting all the tagged fish they catch or trout are a lot better escape artists that I thought.

One Nice Smallie Saves the Day - September 25th

Greg and I fished Bluestone on a day when you would think fish would be feeding. It was overcast, cooling off, and very low fishing pressure. We tried every thing. We caught 2 fish off around the pit and then nothing until about 11am. We tried the slide, below Bertha, below the pits, we finally found a few fish below Bull Falls campground. I caught 5 fish, 4 bass and a redeye all on a shakey head. I caught one nice bass seen in the pic, he weighted ~ 2.5 lbs. A pretty nice smallmouth all and all. But the fall feed up still hasn't started. The water is still very warm despite the almost October calender date.

Low Tide at Stonewall Jackson - September 22nd

On the 1st official day of fall Brad and I left Hinton at 5am for Stonewall Jackson lake. We got on the water @ Vandallia Bay by 7:45. We had rain early and scorching sun late. For some reason the lake was ~ 5 to 7 feet below summer pool, which made fishing tougher than expected. We spent a lot of days exploring the lake. We went back into little skin creek and below the lodge. We had ~ 15 or so hits and caught 9 fish, nothing big and all largemouths. I caught mine on a green shakey head worm and Brad caught his on a craw fish crankbait. We had a great lunch at TJ Musky's in the lodge. They have the biggest Musky mounted in there I have ever seen. We found some early sun catching, perfect riprap banks below the lodge that scream jerkbait bite come late next March or even early April, and I will be back next spring to give it a try if not sooner. Overall it felt more like a scouting trip that a fishing trip. I do really like fishing this lake and feel like the potential to catch a monster is there.

A Big Fat ZERO - September 17th

Brad and I went up to Bluestone lake from 5 to 7:30. We had a few bites on topwater but caught no fish. I don't know what was going on. The water was up a little bit and there was hardly no other boats on the lake at all. We tried every thing but we couldn't get a fish anywhere close to the boat. When we were loading up the boat to go home I heard a guy pole fishing from the pit bank say to his buddy that he had caught 5.

An Afternoon Fishing With Avery - September 16th PM

Avery, Aleshia, and I went fishing for a couple hours. Avery reeled in 10 fish including bluegills, redeyes and bass. We saw a couple squrriels, a deer, and a chipmonk. We all had a good time. It was a nice comfortable eveing with very little traffic on the lake.

Solo on Bluestone - September 16th AM

I fished Bluestone by myself from 6:30 till 11:30. I used buzzbait early, shakey head a lot, and threw a fluke for a while as well. I had 5 bites and caught 2 fish on the buzzbait. The fish didn't seem real interested in the shakey head at although I caught 4 and missed several more. I suspect some of them were small fish maybe even bluegills. I had several hits on the fluke but no hook ups. Fish act like they are starting to slowly think about feeding up and getting more active about chasing down something to eat before winter gets here. I ended up with 14 or so bites and 7 bass caught. I caught all 3 brands of bass and 2 fish that were ~15 inches.

September 11th - Fall Fishing Startup

For the first time in a long time I put the golf clubs down long enough to go fishing. Greg and I fished Bluestone from 6a to 12p out of his Triton. The water temp was ~70 degrees. We fished the pit bank, lower Bluestone river bank on the park side, Bertha campground, Bullfalls campground, and the slide. We caught fish on the pit bank, Bluestone River, and the slide. I caught 7 bass all on green pumpkin shakey head worm and Greg caught 10 on shakey head and buzz bait. Many of Greg's fish came on a white buzz bait. Greg's best fish was an ~ 2 lbs smallmouth off of a buzzbait, and mine was a skinny largemouth caught at the slide.